Mermaid Lagoon

The Indian Village

Saturday, October 07, 2006

First up, "THANK YOU FOR NOT PICKING OUR NEIGHBOR'S FRUIT" a sign at the John Johnson Farm. Years ago the LDS Church owned the land where the tempting fruit now grows and folks got used to just taking a sample now and then when the moment beguiled them. The land was sold to private family farmers (several years ago) who would prefer consumers of their fruit to have purchased it prior to eating. The church agrees; and suggests so through the signs along the shared fencing.Next, this amazingly shocking hot pink gas and tire station I found driving around Cleveland. At first I noticed the obvious colour of the building, then started to see that the colour somehow found it way onto the cars in the facility! Across the street was a bakery that was almost as vivid only in turquoise green and brick red. Between the two colourful businesses the street was a shock of colour and advertisement, fighting for your attention and dollars.Lastly is a final tribute to someone who adores Chevy s-10s. This was one full block of granite! It is full sized and if you look closely enough you can see where the weight of the truck has made the tires slightly flat against the road, or in this case, grass. The detail on this monument was laser perfect and something that caught my eye from a block away. The point? That this particular tomb stone carving business would not be deterred by degree of difficulty, or choice of sculpture, to honour that loved one. They are the best in town and will/can carve whatever you wish to represent you throughout eternity.

All three of the above examples are meant to get your attention and focus your way of thinking for just a moment; just enough time to leave a decision making impression. Whether subtle or in your face we are challenge each day to make decisions that can impact our eternal course. Some influences are very easy to interpret, while others are more gentle and restrained. Yet the choices we make now (based on those influences), even the small seemingly insignificant ones, can matter eternally.

I am off again to the land of glaring, in your face influence...unfortunately most of the influence in this land will be of the negative variety. Things which pervert and distort reality in hopes of luring us and our morality away just an inch or two further from what would matter eternally. Those inches add up and soon, before we know it, we are so far from what we had originally set as a goal it feels almost impossible to go back and get on track again. Lucky for me, I have other choices in this land of indulgence. Lucky for me I know I have the power of choosing for myself.

So we head out for yet another conference in Las Vegas. I am so very blessed to have family close by, the temple to visit, and Thor to keep me company in a land of illusion.

Have a grand week! I will try to post more photos from Ohio while I am in Vegas. In the meantime, what are some of the odd things in your neighborhood that try to influence the folks in your town?

Wow. With the balance of the granite they could carve my car for me! heh.

I think the worst distraction in my fair city is the fact that they're allowing someone to plow over every piece of raw ground. Soo there will be only commerce here. Not one spot for quiet afternoon repose at all.

In fact I mentioned to the big guy that if we were in AZ I'd say let's go for a drive this afternoon. Instead I opted to stay home and stay in a Sunday mood rather than lose it at some random guy in another car.

Chronicler, I noticed the influx of building last time I was there...oh my heck! In laws *used* to live out in the country, spaced well away from other nieghborhoods and traffic. Now they are the hole in a donut of KB,Lennar,and other developer homes that are dwarfing the in laws acre home with the mini mansion 6-9 bedroom hotel type homes everyone seems to want. YIKES.Yolanda, yup. If only it were bottoms! Thor and I were just walking through from the garage when immediately bombarded with image after image of what they deem "liberal views", inuendo photos of a bar/disco in the newest hotel that offers the client "whatever" sexual stimulation necessary to thrust them downward. Woman leering at women, men leering at women, bodies obviously *not* dancing in a way mom would be pleased! 5x8 lit posters all along our path to check in!

It's a real nightmare. The biggest ICK factor? Mom and Dad dragging the kids along with them as they walk through this maze of filth. One restaraunt in the 'plaza' has chosen to decorate the facade of their space with female body parts jutting from the wall in precarious positions...lovely for a little child to have seared into their brain.

Did I mention we are staying at a *nice* hotel? yeah, the fun never ends. So glad I can shut the curtains and when I need to leave I can go across town to normalcy!

"Whether subtle or in your face we are challenge each day to make decisions that can impact our eternal course. Some influences are very easy to interpret, while others are more gentle and restrained. Yet the choices we make now (based on those influences), even the small seemingly insignificant ones, can matter eternally."

I had to quote you because I couldn't have rephrased it quite so well. This is an absolute truth...and we sometimes have no idea that the choices we make will influence the others around us as greatly as they do.

Why am I leaving Las Vegas???? The natural History Museum and Leids discovery are both downtown, past all the butts or what is deemed "Bum row" I guess if my child wants to see a dinosaur he is going to have to start digging. Not to mention they are building storage units around the corner form where we used to live. So the county deemed the neiborhood "comercial" next thing we know a row of porn vending machines (like newspaper machines) are lining the steet where we used to walk our kids.

Kristine, thanks, you're sweet. It's kind of scary when you think about all the influence we will be credited with at judgement day! I have a friedn who put a very "Christian" bumper sticker on her car...more as a reminder to herself (people will know you're a Christian, you represent Gad at the wheel...behave yourself!) than as a memo to other drivers. Good idea.

Pea, o my heck! To rear childrn so close to this cesspool must be a freightening challenge! My poor children would be blind from their mommy poking their eyes shut all day long!

About Me

Just an ordinary gal trying to get from there and back again. These are some of our family favourites, hope you like them too.
Some of the recipes don't have photos; I'll add photos next time I make the recipe, k?